ALBERT MALTZ

Albert Maltz was a playwright and author from the 1930s to the 1980s. He was one of the Hollywood Ten who were jailed in 1950 for their 1947 refusal to testify before the US Congress about their involvement with the US Communist Party. They and many other US entertainment industry figures were subsequently blacklisted, which denied Maltz employment in the industry for many years. He worked regularly as a screenwriter until his blacklisting in the early 1950s. His last script before his blacklisting was The Robe, although he didn't receive a screen credit until decades later. In 1960, Frank Sinatra engaged Maltz to write a screenplay for The Execution of Private Slovik, but in the end Sinatra was pressured into dismissing Maltz from the project. Maltz was finally employed again as a screenwriter on Two Mules for Sister Sara in 1970. Some of his best known works include the screenplay for This Gun For Hire, and The Cross and the Arrow (which he adapted from his own novel). He passed away in 1985 at the age of 76.